Family Money Matters

Lesson Plan

Book: Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw

Topic: Social Studies–Economics

Preschool Lesson Objective: Children will develop an awareness of basic economic vocabulary and concepts. They will:

recognize the relationship between supply and demand and that we depend on others to provide what we need or want
identify how to use objects for trade and explain how people use money to buy things they need or want

Economics Vocabulary for this lesson: Scarcity, choice, consumer, specialization/job diversification, producer, money, goods, supply, demand, barter and trade

Refer to the library page for an Economic Concepts/Vocabulary hand-out.

Resources/Materials Needed:

Book—Sheep in a Shop by Nancy Shaw
Birthday party invitation
Chart paper
Washable markers
Paper strips for labels & price tags
Items for the store
Shelving
Cash register
Play money

Teacher Strategies and Activities:
Introduce the lesson by showing the children an envelope and asking them to predict what is inside.

After several children share their predictions, open the envelope to reveal an invitation to a birthday party.
Ask the children if they have ever been invited to a birthday party.
Ask the children what they took to the party. Encourage the children to discuss birthday gift ideas. Who gives birthday gifts? How do you get the gift you are going to give someone for their birthday? Make sure to discuss the idea of money and buying a gift – trading (exchanging).

Tell the students that today's big book is about some sheep and how they hunt for a birthday gift, only to discover they haven't enough money to pay for it.

Pre-reading skills are incorporated into the lesson here:

Show the students the front cover, back cover and title page of the book.
Read the title, author and illustrator while pointing to each word as it is read. Ask the students what the author and the illustrator of the book do. (The author writes the words and the illustrator creates the pictures.)
Take a picture walk.
Invite one student to point to the words on the first page. (Reinforce the fact that we read the words and words tell us what is happening in the book.)
Ask another student to show where to start reading the book. Point to the words as they are read and demonstrate conventions of print (front to back, left to right sweep, top to bottom, pictures and print).

The first time you read a book, read through the book non-stop, allowing children to experience the book without interruption. While listening, students can exhibit a "rhyming word signal" (raising their little fingers when they hear rhyming words).

After reading the book, ask the children to discuss jobs that they can do at home to earn money to buy a birthday gift. Chart the children's responses.
Tell the children that they can help create a store in dramatic play that is similar to the one in the book.

Re-read the book using Dialogic Reading strategies (engaging the children in conversation about the story to expand their vocabulary and interest in the story). Selecting and Sharing Books with Young Children, Parts I and II, offer useful strategies including Dialogic Reading and can be found in the Course Section of the Verizon Literacy Campus (VLC).

Follow-Up Activities:
Dramatic Play/House Area:

Students assist the teacher in creating a store in the dramatic play area.

Students make labels for the shelves where the toys/gifts will be placed by printing the name or drawing a picture of the toys/gifts on precut paper.
Students sort the toys/gifts according to the labels on the shelves.
Students assign prices and print price tags. The teacher can model how to print dollar and cents signs explaining that dollars are more than cents.

Discuss the various jobs (specialization/job diversification), including the toy/gift manufacturer and shipping company. All are necessary for a store to operate.

Discuss the importance of all the jobs and the people who perform them. Help children decide which job they will do.
Discuss the importance of consumers—without them the business would fail and would have to close permanently.

Extending play throughout the classroom:

Block area—Provide five toy sheep, one toy pig (the shop owner), wood unit blocks (to build the store), paper and crayons (to make labels and price tags). Encourage the children to re-enact the story using the props. Keep the book available to the children as a reference for correct sequencing. If possible, have more then one copy.
Discovery table—Children explore sheep's wool. (If wool is unobtainable, provide batting material.)
Art area—Children make sheep cutouts and glue cotton balls onto them.
Math activity—Children count out the corresponding number of pennies into small wrapped boxes marked with assigned prices. Provide the book Counting Money by Tanya Thayer.
Writing table—Provide sample birthday invitations & cards, paper, pencils, crayons & washable markers for the children to make their own birthday invitations & cards.
Add books to the library—Consider Jelly Beans For Sale by Bruce McMillan, The Coin Counting Book by Rozanne Lanczak Williams, Round and Round the Money Goes by Melvin and Gilda Berger, Candy Shop by Jan Wahl, Curious George Goes To A Toy Store by Margaret & H. A. Rey, The Great Pet Sale by Mick Inkpen, Our Garage Sale by Anne Rockwell, You Can’t Buy a Dinosaur With a Dime by Harriet Ziefert, Tom and Pippo Go Shopping by Helen Oxenbury and The Purse by Kathy Caple.

Refer to the library page for more books that can be used to learn about economic concepts.

This information was produced by the National Center for Family Literacy for use on www.thinkfinity.org, a powerful educational platform supported by the Verizon Foundation. This information is in the public domain and may be reproduced for noncommercial purposes without permission.